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The Age of Steel (TV story)
The Age of Steel 'is the sixth episode of the second series of ''Doctor Who. It was written by Tom MacRae, directed by Euros Lyn and featured David Tennant as the Tenth Doctor and Billie Piper as Rose Tyler with Noel Clarke as Mickey Smith. Overview To be added Synopsis Lumic and the Cybermen are forcing the population of the parallel world to "upgrade" into cold, emotionless creatures like themselves. In a last ditch effort to stop their effort and prevent the conversion of the entire human race, the Doctor, Rose and Mickey join forces with the alternate-reality counterpart of Pete Tyler and the Preachers in the search for the one weakness in the Cybermen's plans. All the while, Mickey has a monumental decision to make... Plot Encircled by the Cybermen, the Doctor disintegrates them all using the power cell from the TARDIS, giving everybody time to escape in the Preacher's van. In the van, Jake and Rickey reveal that Pete has been working for Lumic on the Ultimate Upgrade Project, threatening to execute him; the Doctor is quick to stop them from doing that. Rose is quick to defend Pete when he reveals that he is the informant Gemini. The Doctor tells them that Lumic has overreached himself by murdering the President, all they have to do is inform the authorities to stop him. In Lumic's zeppelin, he questions his Cybermen's views and motivations. Assured in his plan, Lumic orders the control broadcast to be transmitted that will call all the peoples of London to the factories for conversion. The Preachers discover the mass control leading them towards the factories and watch the Cybermen escorting them. When the Cybermen approach, the group disperses, which Mickey and Ricky going once way while Jake distracts them and Mrs. Moore leads the Doctor, Rose and Pete away. A group of Cybermen chase after Mickey and Ricky and they split up while the Doctor manages to draw the group chasing him and the others away by diverting their signal. At the factories, members of the public idly walk into the conversion chambers. The Cybermen keep chasing Ricky and Mickey; eventually, they are separated by a fence with Cybermen advancing on Rickey. Despite his best efforts at climbing it, the Cybermen catch Ricky and kill him, to Mickey's shock and disgust. In Lumic's zeppelin, the Cybermen bring Crane before him, having willingly removed the ear pods. Realising that Lumic's plan is insane, Crane takes action and starts ripping wires and life-support systems from his wheelchair before he is killed by the Cybermen. Seeing that Lumic is injured, the Cybermen take control of his wheelchair and force the protestant man towards the conversion chamber against his will. The Preachers regroup; when Mickey arrives without Ricky, Jake is distraught but the Doctor tells him that they'll mourn his death when London is safe. Advancing to a hill overlooking the factory, the group comes up with a plan wherein the Doctor and Mrs. Moore travel through underground tunnels beneath the plant and Pete and Rose feign control with broken earpieces to get inside through the front to look for Jackie. Before they leave, the Doctor gives Jake the job of taking out the control transmitter on the zeppelin above the factory and Mickey goes with him. Heading into the cooling tunnels, the Doctor and Mrs. Moore find rows of dormant Cybermen strewn all up the corridor and head towards the factory. Meanwhile, Pete and Rose sneak around the masses and stick the false ear pods in their ears before merging into the line and sneaking inside. On the roof, Jake and Mickey find the ladder to the zeppelin and use some of Mrs. Moore's noxious smelling salts to knock out the guards and get aboard. The Doctor and Mrs. Moore continue down the tunnels while Moore talks about her history with the Preachers, having wound up on the run after discovering something she shouldn't have in Cybus's mainframe after taking on 'Mrs. Moore' as an alias to protect her husband and children, giving her real name to the Doctor as Angela Price. The Doctor swears to secrecy, failing to notice triggering a security sensor that alerts the Cybermen to their presence. The Cybermen in the tunnels start activating and they run, narrowly escaping through a hatch in the roof of the tunnel. Inside the factory, Rose and Pete wander in the lines of people waiting for upgrading as they witness people step inside the conversion chamber and transformed violently into Cybermen. Pete asks if they can see Jackie, when a Cyberman steps forth and tells them that she used to be Jackie; the shock and horror they both feel gives them away and they're restrained. Acknowledging Pete's role in the Cybermen's creation, they send both Pete and Rose to Cyber-Control. In the zeppelin control room, Mickey and Jake look around for the transmitter controls and find another dormant Cyberman, presumably the first one created. Thinking it inactive, they keep looking for the transmitter controls. Meanwhile, the Doctor and Mrs. Moore keep wandering the tunnels and stumble across a stray Cyberman that Moore downs with an electromagnetic bomb. Removing the plate on it's chest, the Doctor examines it's heart and finds the emotional inhibitor along with artificial flesh created a central nervous system. The Cyberman suddenly wakes up, unaware of where it is with it's emotional inhibitor broken; it reveals itself as Sally Phelen, a woman on the eve of her wedding to a man named Gareth. Using his sonic screwdriver, the Doctor turns Sally off permanently. The broken inhibitor gives the Doctor the idea to find the universal code for the inhibitors in Lumic's system and force it into every Cyberman, shutting off their emotional inhibitors simultaneously, which would likely destroy them. Mrs. Moore implores that this is the only way they can win but when she stands, she is killed by a Cyberman stood behind her. The Cybermen then escort the Doctor to Cyber-Control. Finding the transmitter controls sealed off, Jake and Mickey plan to set the zeppelin to crash after they escape with Mickey hacking into the system to find it, unaware they it's animating the empty Cyberman. In Cyber-Control, the Doctor is reunited with Rose and Pete when Lumic presents himself to them, post-upgrade, as the Cyber Controller. While Mickey works, the Cyberman starts advancing on them; Mickey coaxes it over to him and tricks it into punching out the transmitter controls, shutting off the signal and giving the public their awareness back as they flee in terror. Hacking into Cyber-Control's security feeds, Mickey and Jake observe the Doctor converse with the Controller, berating him for removing everything that made him human, especially emotions. Aware that Mickey is watching on the camera, the Doctor subtly instructs the find the cancellation code for the emotional inhibitor and send it to Rose's phone, which he then embeds into the Cybus mainframe and all the Cybermen's emotions return to them. Driven mad by what they've become, all the Cybermen start destroying themselves. As the factory starts to go up in flames, the Doctor, Rose and Pete try to find an escape route; in the zeppelin, Mickey and Jake fight for control of their getaway. Mickey calls Rose and tells them to head for the roof wherein they drop an escape ladder for them to climb up with. While they climb the ladder, the Controller, who broke free of his life-support starts following them up the ladder. The Doctor drops the sonic down to Pete, who uses it on the rope and the section of ladder the Controller is climbing breaks off and he plummets into the flames of the exploding factory. Returning to the TARDIS, the Doctor inserts the recharged power cell and the ship returns to life. Rose tries to connect with the alternate Pete as her father, but he leaves in shock over the events of the night. With about a five-minute gateway to leave this universe, the Doctor ushers his friends to leave. However, Mickey tells them both that he's staying in this universe to help Jake with the fight against the Cybermen. The Doctor and Rose are shocked by this and Rose tries to talk him out of it but he doesn't wish to. Rose gets even more distressed when the Doctor says that once they leave, they'll never be able to come back and they'll never see him again. With a final respectful farewell, the Doctor goes inside the TARDIS and gives Mickey and Rose a moment alone, wherein they share a highly emotional, tearful goodbye before she follows inside the TARDIS. Mickey stands stoic as it dematerialises to the bewilderment of Jake. Landing back in Rose's flat, Rose runs straight into her mother's arms, relieved to see her alive and well. Deciding to liberate Paris first, Mickey and Jake head off to continue the fight in Ricky's name. Cast * The Doctor - David Tennant * Rose Tyler - Billie Piper * Jackie Tyler - Camille Coduri * Mickey Smith - Noel Clarke * Pete Tyler - Shaun Dingwall * John Lumic - Roger Lloyd Pack * Jake Simmonds - Andrew Hayden-Smith * Mrs Moore - Helen Griffin * Mr Crane - Colin Spaull * Newsreader - Duncan Duff * Cyber-Leader - Paul Kasey * Cyber-Voice - Nicholas Briggs Crew To be added References To be added Story Notes To be added Continuity To be added Home video and audio releases To be added External Links * Official ''The Age of Steel'' page on '''Doctor Who Website